Heaven of Contentment

The Avatamsaka Sutra has this rather improbable line:

All buddhas can abide in the heaven of contentment in all worlds.

To which we reply with utter incredulity: "Are you kidding?? How do we find contentment in a world of --simultaneously -- rampant othering, economic whiplash, climate horrors, callous performative cruelty -- and that's just for starters. Either we're not buddhas, or someone has a very warped definition of heaven."

But we are buddha-nature, or so the teachings tell us. And this particular section of that sutra is rather emphatic about all worlds. So, our task is to meet Dōgen's challenge to continue our practice even in a world where it's getting dark and we don't know when the light will come again. Like this world.

In classic depictions of the six realms, there is always a bodhisattva in each one, even in the hell realms. This gives us two clues: First, that the realms aren't somewhere else. In a human life we can still find ourselves as a blissed-out oblivious god or a frantic and starving hungry ghost or an angry fighter clinging to what's historically been privilege but that the rabble now clamors for.

Second, those bodhisattvas remind us that help is always available, even in the deepest hells and darkest nights, when relief is hardest to see and believe in. It is in these times that we remember that a heartfelt plea to the universe always gets a response. Maybe not the one we wanted. Maybe not the one we expected. But this is where our practice during those precious moments of non-chaos (i.e., on our cushion) gives us just enough spaciousness to be able to notice the response when it comes. (For encouragement in this effort, see the verse from Chapter 25 of the Lotus Sutra, “Regarder of the Cries of the World.”)

But what about the "heaven of contentment" part? That can't even remotely describe the world we're in right now. Maybe it really is time to pack up and head for the dusty realms of other lands. And yet ... (those two most pregnant words in Fukānzazēngi) ... if we make one misstep, we separate from heaven. So, there's no choice but to find contentment right here.

Buddhism proposes two universal antidotes to suffering — gratitude and generosity — and we can use them to create small bits of heaven right here. We can offer thanks in ways that perhaps haven’t occurred to us before: to the bagger of our groceries, to the doctor who’s willing to diagnose us by video, to the person who delivers medicines to our mailbox, to the friend who listens to our fears without trying to fix us.

When it’s our turn to be that person, we respond from a heart of generosity, a heart that expands exponentially when we remember to be generous to ourselves, to take that afternoon nap, to sit without thinking, to cry.

And when we are grateful and generous, even in fleeting moments and minuscule amounts, we realize one more truth about those depictions of the six realms.

The bodhisattva in each realm is us.